Convergence

Convergence was one of the buzzwords of 2007 in the Telecomunications world. Convergence between fixed and mobile services (FMC) , billing convergence or technological convergence.
The fact is that Telecom Operators are offering their customers different products that are billed separetely. For instance, Internet ADSL access, cable TV, fixed Telephony service or even Mobile Telephony. This situation has made that the Telco Operator may bundle Dual or Triple Play offers to the customer and bill them altogether. There is also an opportunity to create technology mixed solutions, like Femtocells that use the legacy fixed network and ADSL access to increase the Mobile Network access or Pay TV solutions over the ADSL connection... this is what convergence, at least in a restricted sense signified to the Telco Operators.

The present year, in the Mobile World Congress, one of the hot issues was the Near Field Communications (NFC) technology and the services associated, that is, Mobile Ticketing, Identification and Payment. This technology enables the possibility to put, securely and once issued, inside the mobile phone the applications needed to deploy these services. This situation positions the Mobile Operators as key players in a new group of payment services. And this is not new for them, at present they are charging the subscriber for the services that they use when browsing the Internet, like streaming TV or ring-tones and music download. This technology presents the opportunity to make the same in the real world.
This new position can take convergence to another stage. Once the physical platform, credit cards and SIM cards, converge, what will be the difference in putting a payment application on one or the other? The Telco Operators may start competing with the Credit Card issuers (mainly banks) for the customers as to offer them the more number of services. Maybe we can see in the near future some Telco Operators start issuing credit cards and some bank enter the business of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) as to offer Telecommunication Services to their own customers.

I am sure that not all the Telco Operators will enter the bank industry, as well as most of the banks will not start their own MVNO, but it will be interesting to see how this enabling technology that is the NFC affects the business arena between banks and telcos, and also all the supplier industry for both sectors Converge.